Beur

Beur is a colloquial term to designate French-born people whose parents are immigrants from North Africa. The word was coined by reversing the syllables of the word arabe, which means Arabic or Arab in French. For example, "arabe" becomes "a-ra-beu" then "beu-ra-a" and "beur" by contraction. The term is slightly familiar and not advised in formal speech with respect to etiquette. Beurs have their origin in the countries of the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). In addition, the term Beur is also used to refer to all the Arabs from either Maghreb or Mashreq areas of the Arab world born in France.